Ivan Rakitić

[JohnN]

He looked worse than in the previous games and kind of gassed out today. He should have been rotated in my opinion, especially now that Arthur isn't available.

 

[Sorin]

I don't know what were people watching. The goal scored by Lukaku was mostly on him. Caught ball watching, casually jogging back as usual while Lukaku was running unimpeded at our back line. And everything else was so damn average. For all the unwarranted shit he takes, the opposite is also true, the lowest standard for saying "good game" is Rakitic by far.

 

[devo901]

I don't know what were people watching. The goal scored by Lukaku was mostly on him. Caught ball watching, casually jogging back as usual while Lukaku was running unimpeded at our back line. And everything else was so damn average. For all the unwarranted shit he takes, the opposite is also true, the lowest standard for saying "good game" is Rakitic by far.

I agree raki is more a jogger than a greyhoud, but in the lukaku goal situation I cant agree that this was his goal.

https://youtu.be/NP4R8X7_M80?t=77

I do not see that Lukaku was raki's man to defend.
because
1. Lenglet was closer to goal better position
2. Lenglet had already more speed
3. on top of this ... while tobido was wrestling with martinez - there was still umtiti.

Plus, in the end the ball was a lucky goal because deflected otherwise it would have been at Neto at his right shoulder.
Yes, 4 defenders getting a goal from 2 attackers look bad, but this is hard to defend, given the skill of martinez and the bull lukaku + a crutial deflection.

Raki was again in an onlooker/pedestarian mode - but tackling lukaku, I do not see as his role in this specific situation.

 

[devo901]

Their website used to provide individual distance at full time. They don't anymore for some reason. They only give the collective distance, or the distance run by a player on the course of the whole competition (hilariously useless if u ask me this one)

good news - still there but a bit hidden...
https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsl...ound=2001140/match=2027114/index.html?iv=true scroll down and you get the match statistics which shows you over 90 min who ran what distance. if you scroll more you get the halftime stats...

so good catch from bbz8800!!

https://img.uefa.com/UploadedMedia/1/50649/F101/9451571004_poster.png

 

[Total-Football]

good news - still there but a bit hidden...
https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsl...ound=2001140/match=2027114/index.html?iv=true scroll down and you get the match statistics which shows you over 90 min who ran what distance. if you scroll more you get the halftime stats...

so good catch from bbz8800!!

https://img.uefa.com/UploadedMedia/1/50649/F101/9451571004_poster.png

Are u sure? Clicked on the link and couldn't find it for the life of me.. I only see the distance ran by the whole team which was 111 km. Please post a link to a particular barca player. Anyone u want

 

[devo901]

Oh sorry - I have not found the stats for every indivudual players, but at least the halftime and fulltime view of the distance run.
I agree knowing this would be even better... on the other hand - but I am already OK with this list as it shows the top 5 of my team and usually the 2 centerbacks and goalkeeper I do not really want to know. So that leaves 3 players that might be important but for me as a fan that is good enough.

 

[BusiTheKing]

I don't know what you can say. You look at the situations in which he gets the ball and there are just so many times where a good player would use the situation around him to do something that creates attacking momentum, catch the opponents pressure on the wrong leg, switch the groun on them, where he just passes it back to the centrebacks.

 

[ASordidGod]

I don't know what you can say. You look at the situations in which he gets the ball and there are just so many times where a good player would use the situation around him to do something that creates attacking momentum, catch the opponents pressure on the wrong leg, switch the groun on them, where he just passes it back to the centrebacks.

Yeah, exactly this. I mean, yeah he's been decent enough recently, and yeah he's still a pretty good mid overall. With one major flaw (ignoring his complete lack of pace and ponderous technique); he's a coward. I don't mean in physical terms, I mean a coward in possession. Under even the slightest pressure, his default instinct is to get rid. Hence a whole litany of backwards passes when he could just turn; and with absolutely no consideration for the pressure which, ultimately, in his desperation to be rid of the ball, to avoid responsibility, he actually increases. Liverpool is the obvious example, but in every game he exhibits identical if less obviously suicidal patterns of play. It's unforgivable in my opinion.

 

[BBZ8800]

Are u sure? Clicked on the link and couldn't find it for the life of me.. I only see the distance ran by the whole team which was 111 km. Please post a link to a particular barca player. Anyone u want

I looked now at the total stats from a CL this season, to calculate kilometers covered per match (90 minutes) for our players.

Here are the results:
12,0 km (per match) Vidal
11,9 km Rakitic
11,7 km Frenkie
11,0 km Alena
10,9 km Busi
10,8 km Arthur

I am not even surprised that Arthur is again the worst runner out of our midfielders.
On the other hand, these stats suggest, if we would want to have the most "workhorse" lineup possible, that would be: Vidal-Rakitic-Frenkie.
On the other hand, if you want to get outran by physical teams, the best way to get outran is to field: Busi-Arthur and some random 3rd guy.

** Some of you guys are talking for years: if Arthur would have played on Anfield, he would have ressisted their press, blah blah.
Fine, true.
When we would have the ball=he would keep the ball.
But what happens when we lose the ball?
He runs the least and makes the lowest amount of tackles and interceptions.

Again, sadly for you, football is played in two ways today.
Attack means nothing if you can't win the ball back.
Also, defense means nothing if you can't create anything in attack.

This is why a team needs a mix of: creators, runners and defenders.
A guy like Frenkie has almost everything.
But with other guys, someone needs to defend, and someone needs to create.
We can't just have 3 Iniestas on a field or 3 Rakitics.
2 Iniestas and 1 Rakitic is a way better combination than 3 Iniestas.

 

[BusiTheKing]

True. He lets the pressure converge on his position and then offloads it on the next guy.

 

[BBZ8800]

I don't know what you can say. You look at the situations in which he gets the ball and there are just so many times where a good player would use the situation around him to do something that creates attacking momentum, catch the opponents pressure on the wrong leg, switch the groun on them, where he just passes it back to the centrebacks.

Yeah, exactly this. I mean, yeah he's been decent enough recently, and yeah he's still a pretty good mid overall. With one major flaw (ignoring his complete lack of pace and ponderous technique); he's a coward. I don't mean in physical terms, I mean a coward in possession. Under even the slightest pressure, his default instinct is to get rid. Hence a whole litany of backwards passes when he could just turn; and with absolutely no consideration for the pressure which, ultimately, in his desperation to be rid of the ball, to avoid responsibility, he actually increases. Liverpool is the obvious example, but in every game he exhibits identical if less obviously suicidal patterns of play. It's unforgivable in my opinion.

While this is true, again: if you field Alena-Arthur-Frenkie, you will get less kilometers covered in defense.
And once when you lose the ball, Alena and Arthur won't be able to recover it as good as let's say Vidal/Busi/Raki.

So, if you remove Raki for a more creative guy, you will get a few more nice attacking actions and you will lose defening once when you lose the ball.
But again, our fans and forum are looking mostly at an attacking side of a game and they don't care too much about defending, workrate, covering, positioning in defense.

 

[BusiTheKing]

I looked now at the total stats from a CL this season, to calculate kilometers covered per match (90 minutes) for our players.

Here are the results:
12,0 km Vidal
11,9 km Rakitic
11,7 km Frenkie
11,0 km Alena
10,9 km Busi
10,8 km Arthur

Please tell me that you understand that someone who plays entire matches is going to run less pr. minute than someone whose performances this season in the CL are 30, 6, 22, 78 and 63 minutes long. You understand that it's easier to match a certain intensity for 30 minutes than for 90 minutes, right?

 

[Total-Football]

Those averages are bad representation BBZ because they don't take into account the nature of the games.. If barca is winning 5 0 messi will not even bother walking! We need the numbers for specific matches especially the important ones where everyone is supposed to give it all.

 

[BBZ8800]

Those averages are bad representation BBZ because they don't take into account the nature of the games.. If barca is winning 5 0 messi will not even bother walking! We need the numbers for specific matches especially the important ones where everyone is supposed to give it all.

Please tell me that you understand that someone who plays entire matches is going to run less pr. minute than someone whose performances this season in the CL are 30, 6, 22, 78 and 63 minutes long. You understand that it's easier to match a certain intensity for 30 minutes than for 90 minutes, right?

True to some extent.
But since we can't find any other info on distance covered, we have to work with these stats.

So, there is an option: to compare players ON THE SAME match, or who played similar amount of minutes on same matches.

So, for example, two questions:
1. how come that a 31 years old Rakitic covered more kms yesterday at half time (the numbers which we were able to find) than a youngster Alena or another midfielder Vidal, who were rested more than Rakitic?
Not to mention Griezmann, Perez, Wague, Firpo?

2. the 2nd question, Frenkie played on the same matches as Arthur, since he played the first 5 matches for 90 minutes and yesterday came off the bench.
Also, Arthur played against Dortmund away, where we had to run like crazy, against Slavia away, where we had to run like crazy, and against Inter at home, where they were attacking us like crazy in the 1st half.
So, none of Arzhur's 3 matches was an easy match where we had 80% possession around the opponent's box and where we were walking and playing simple safepasses from left to right.
So, it is fair to assume that Arthur played in the high intensity box-to-box matches, right?
Now, add Frenkie into a mix. Frenkie had to play against Slavia at home where we were dominated the most in all of our 6 CL matches.
And against Dortmund, also at home, where Dortmund couldn't do too much.
Also, Frenkie played for 90 minutes all the time, so he didn't statpad his numbers regarding kms covered.
When you sum all of this, how come that Frenkie still has almost 1 km covered per match more than Arthur? They are of the same age, yet Frenkie played way more matches in a row (so he should have been more tired and less open for covering like crazy) and he is almost never rested.

About Rakitic, he was the 2nd best player on a World cup 2018 who covered the highest amount of kilometers:
Distance covered by player :
PERISIC (Croatia) - 72.543 km
RAKITIC (Croatia) - 72.525 km
MODRIC (Croatia) - 72.307 km
STONES (England) - 69.1 km
VRSALJKO (Croatia) - 68.752 km

For example, against England in semis, he played his 70th match of 2017/18 season without a rest, and he was the only player in the world with 70 matches that season.
He has already played 120 minutes (extra times) against Denmark in 1/8, Russia in 1/4 and then another extra time against England in semis, and even with a high fever (39*C), he was the 2nd best player on a field with 14,540 meters covered.
After 71 matches in 2018, without a rest in a summer, he played another 54 matches for Valverde in 2018/19 and several NT matches, which is in total more than 130 matches in a row in 2 seasons.
Of course that he was a walking zombie in a spring of 2019'.
But when rested, do you think that it is a coincidence that he is a again a player with the highest amount of kms covered in our team and that our tam is more balanced, organized and stable in defense?

Ivan Rakitic covered the total of 14.541 km against England, the second-best distance in his team, behind Marcelo Brozovic. This piece of statistic will not pierce through our ears immediately but will stand much taller if you combine it with the fact that Rakitic played the England game under fever.

“My temperature was about 39°. I was lying in bed pulling strength to play and it was worth it. I would play the final without a leg if needed.”, he said after the win.

Spoken like a true leader – a silent one – who is digging deep to pull the last atom of strength after a gruelling season at his club. Namely, Rakitic has last night played his 70th match of the season with no other footballer playing more than him. And what a match that was. Calm and composed throughout another extra time game, Rakitic was everything Croatia needed in order to win.

It’s just like Slaven Bilic (a former Croatian NT coach) explained it – “Modric takes the eye but Ivan Rakitic is the heartbeat of this Croatia team”.

The unsung hero.

 

[BusiTheKing]

Eh no, if the data you have is skewed, then you should dismiss it lol